Aristocratic Women Research Articles

Mademoiselle de Montpensier: female politician and military leader during the Fronde

Importance. The history of women, the interest in which in national and foreign historiography does not wane, is a pressing problem for historians studying the Fronde in France (1648–1653). During the Civil War, active aristocratic women had the opportunity to express themselves as politicians and even as military leaders on an equal basis with men, and sometimes even overshadow them. An example of this is Mademoiselle de Montpensier who left a detailed account of her enterprises in her Memoirs. They are the main source of this research work and are supplemented by information from the “Memoirs” of another participant in the Fronde, Cardinal de Retz. The purpose of the work is to evaluate her actions in political and military events during the Fronde, to find out the reasons why the Duchess was able to become a political and military leader at a time when women did not have the right to be ministers or generals.Research Methods. To study the materials within the «Memoirs», methods of social history, the study of sources of personal origin, and historical and comparative methods are used.Results and Discussion. The analysis of the sources used shows that Princess de Montpensier was by no means a typical frondeur – her goals, means, and motivations were different from those used by many other “rebels”. Many aristocratic women became “oppositionists” for economic reasons – they joined parties in order to achieve personal goals, which were often selfish. The princess, young, active, physically strong and healthy, received a rich inheritance and solved political and military problems during the Fronde. The combination of personal qualities, wealth and high position in society gave her the opportunity to become the most famous and active frontwoman.Conclusion. To summarize, it should be noted that the memoirist purposefully sought to participate in the political life of France in the mid-17th century. and achieved success. She became a more significant politician than her father, Gaston d’Orleans, and took a significant part in the activities of the party of the Prince de Condé and in the campaigns of his army.

A Parallel Comparison Between the Social Status of Sogdian and Chinese Aristocratic Women in Tang Dynasty

Sogdians were active in commercial activities on the Silk Road in Tang and Song Dynasty of China. The interaction between Sogdians and Chinese promotes the exchange and development of both cultures, which resulted in some shared similarities between them, including the social status of women. However, further research is required to compare the social status of Sogdian and Chinese aristocratic women. This contributes to better knowledge about the family structure and marital relationships in Tang Dynasty, enabling researchers to reconstruct the life of aristocratic Sogdians and Chinese. In this paper, the term social status is deconstructed into female literacy, marital autonomy, and accessibility to the property. Two Sogdian ancient letters, one Tang epitaph, and several Sogdian and Chinese legal documents are analyzed from the three aspects. In conclusion, both Sogdian and Chinese aristocratic women enjoyed relatively higher social status in Tang Dynasty. Sogdian women were slightly superior to Chinese women, as they had more agency to divorce. Nevertheless, their relatively higher social statuses were not common across the entire gender and were still not comparable to their male counterparts.

Female Characters of Fantasy in George Raymond Richard Martin’s A Game of Thrones

Fantasy is fiction about bizarre and impossible to which female characters were connected through this work. A Game of Thrones is an epic fantasy novel, under the series. A Song of Ice and Fire. This fantasy novel involves psychological and archetypical personal features to create the middle age’s culture. A good number of female characters were presented who were not just an accessory but an engaging, powerful and successful person belonging to various age groups. Fantasy in this novel develops along with the heroines. Martin’s heroines can be considered as feminists, they were not limited to the stereotypical gender roles. The female protagonists of the series are generally aristocratic women who have to abide the rules which are enforced on them. Women navigate societal expectations in diverse ways, with some conforming, others openly resisting, and a third group employing more subtle, devious methods to oppose prevailing norms. All the women are oppressed, they have to struggle and are limited by the boundaries set by the society typical for many a book of the fantasy genre. They all are affected by the patriarchal society they live in. Martin tries to overcome all these with some female characters with different aspects but believably strong.

Wives, Mothers, Female Warriors. The Image of Polish Women in Nineteenth Century American Historiography

The author analyzes selected American historical narratives published in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and describes the image of Polish women presented in them. Women were not usually visible in the historiography of this period, and in fact, they are rarely mentioned, but if they are mentioned, it is mainly as rather inactive wives and/or mothers. In Polish history, however, there were important exceptions, such as Dobrawa and Jadwiga Andegawenska or, to a lesser extent, Bona Sforza and Marysieńka Sobieska. Other queens are mentioned rather rarely, and only exceptionally do women from outside the ruling families appear, which is something that applies even to aristocratic women. It is these very rare mentions of Polish women that are taken into consideration even if they are usually mentioned in single publications. In addition, detailed research is presented to isolate certain statements about Polish women in general and their character and virtues. These statements are relatively few in number, but they are occasionally included especially when they describe customs. These elements serve as the basis for analyzing the overall image of Polish women in American historiography with a particular emphasis on the process of its historical modification. Moreover, the author also includes elements of comparison between descriptions of Polish women and those of women from other countries and nations with the aim of identifying any possible similarities and/or differences with regard to the Polish national (feminine) character and the national (feminine) set of virtues.

Rethinking sports history to include sportswomen in 1900s France.

In the history of French sport, the practice of physical activities by women is essentially considered non-existent before the 1920s, with the exception of a few aristocratic women. Although this idea persists, it has been challenged by recent research on early sportswomen. These studies raise the question of the scope of sports history, and indeed the very definition of sports itself. These are usually defined in the social sciences as physical activities that are organized, codified and institutionalized, structured by clubs and federations. While at the beginning of the 20th century these clubs and federations were most often closed to women, this does not mean that women were not practicing sports. Physical activities were gaining increasing popularity among women even before this time, and not only among the upper class. There is evidence of women swimming, cycling, racewalking, and even wrestling or boxing in the United States, Canada and Britain, as well as in France. These practices necessarily developed outside institutions, with women taking them up as individual pastimes. As demand grew, some sought to profit from this, and sports promoters organized the first competitions. Journalists then reported on these events in the press, sometimes with amusement, sometimes with disapproval. Yet the first women walkers, runners, cyclists and other athletes are only now beginning to appear in historical studies. This paper seeks to contribute to the rehabilitation of these sportswomen, who include working-class boxers and wrestlers, all of whom have long been subject to a double exclusion-institutional and historical. It presents the history of the first competitions of sportswomen-professional or amateur-in France at the turn of the century, a first foundation stone in writing a new and more inclusive history of sport.

Female political facilitators: a case study of post-Napoleonic Rome

ABSTRACT This article presents a case study of the way in which elite women in informal social networks could facilitate political contacts and discourse in a manner that does not accord with existing typologies. Focusing upon exile society in post-Napoleonic Rome, it describes this group of women as political ‘facilitators’. After considering the nature of the society and the network of women at the heart of it, it assesses in particular the activities of two—Teresa, Countess Guiccioli and ex-Queen Hortense of Holland—to explore the gendered dimensions of the socio-political culture in which they moved. Taken together, the activities of the group of women examined here illuminate three themes: that exile society offered a breadth of informal political space; that women with no obvious political goals could be important facilitators of political connections within that space; and that some aristocratic women were autonomous actors, independent of male authority. It suggests that more analysis and exploration would illuminate the roles played by such women.

Gender of Purple Manuscripts and the Makeup of Sacred Scriptures

In his letters to Roman aristocratic women about the proper use of scripture, Jerome dismissed purple makeup and any adornment of books with luxurious materials as wasteful distraction from the content of the text. He contrasts makeup and precious clothing with the textual correctness of his scholarly emended manuscripts and with corporal mortification and ascetic practices. Jerome’s dismissal of the materiality and sensuality of books goes hand in hand with a binary gender model that associates the philological work upon the text and the renunciation of its adornment with male scholarship. In order for women to become equal to men through the study of scripture, Jerome extols the performance of a textual asceticism that suppresses the makeup of books and of female bodies alike. His makeup criticism is part of a larger discourse that expresses a persistent fear of a sensual engagement with the materiality of scripture in binary gender stereotypes. A close reading of the purple metaphors employed by Jerome reveals their roots in the rhetorical appraisal of eloquence and poetic language precisely through the materiality of the text.

WOMEN IN THE HISTORY OF THE EARLY MODERN TIME – OUTSTANDING PERSONALITIES OF THE DRUGETH FAMILY (II)

Due to the development of the science of history and the research on the „female theme”, the way of looking at the past and the future is also undergoing a significant change. In our study, through the study of general and specific examples, we would like to present the social conditions in which aristocratic women lived, worked, gave birth, raised children, and managed estates in the second half of the 17th century. Many of them can be said to have withstood the difficult conditions of those times in an exemplary manner. In the society of those times, all people had their own duties and responsibilities with regard to their gender and age. In this study, we examine what opportunities were available to early modern aristocratic women in terms of social and community relations, family life and building a marriage inserted into the historical events of those times. We complete it by examining the life paths and career models of the women who entered the Homonnai Drugeth family through marriage, highlighting various aspects of their lives. From the reader’s point of view, it may seem excessive to outline the social conditions of those times, however, without knowledge of them, the formulation of women’s roles of those times may be incomplete. In the second half of the 17th century, the religious structure of the region also changed significantly, so the aristocratic women of those times (unlike their predecessors) already supported the spread of re-Catholicization. What roles did the aristocratic women of that period play in contemporary Hungarian society and in their narrower environment? The framework for this was mainly set by her family and the inherited relationship system into which she was born. In accordance with social expectations, the aristocratic woman of those times increased the prestige of her family through marriage as well as ensured financial security of her future descendants with a prosperous marriage. Since women did not (could not) participate widely and officially in the formation of politics and everyday public life, there are much fewer and more diverse sources about them than about men. In these, we can find references to them mainly as wives, daughters, brides and mothers. Despite this (precisely due to their social status), women also had a significant informal influence on political life. That is why it is important to study the life path of women of those times, because without this knowledge our image of the society of those times would be incomplete. The present study may become one of the important building blocks, which, in addition to supplementing incomplete biographical data, will try to present the social roles played by these women. The article is a continuation of a scientific study devoted to the current problem - the analysis of the role of women of noble origin in the early modern period in the socio-political and socio-economic relations of the northeastern part of the Hungarian Kingdom. The article summarizes the study new aspects of the family history through the unknown moments of the life path of the Drugeth women (Katalin Nádasdy, Anna Jakusich, Mária Esterházi Mária, Terézia Keglevich) and new give aspects of the family's history.

Knowing How: Estate Management, Practical Knowledge, and Agency among Aristocratic Women in Early Modern Sweden

Knowing How: Estate Management, Practical Knowledge, and Agency among Aristocratic Women in Early Modern Sweden

:Women’s Friendship in Medieval Literature

:<i>Women’s Friendship in Medieval Literature</i>

Dangerous or Goodly Passions: The Role of Emotion in Parliament and Politics

Dangerous or Goodly Passions: The Role of Emotion in Parliament and Politics

The Political Mistress: Intimacy, Emotion, and Parliamentary Politics in the Late 18th Century

AbstractBetween c.1796 and 1809, Lady Harriet Ponsonby, Countess Bessborough and Lord Granville Leveson Gower were embroiled in a passionate affair. Their liaison created tensions in aristocratic society because they belonged to rival political parties, the Whigs and the Tories respectively. In the early years of their relationship, Leveson Gower was emerging on the political scene, while the countess was already well‐versed in the complexities of party politics. Leveson Gower thus solicited her advice and support and Bessborough duly shared her knowledge and insight into the political world, which created an unusual dynamic that scholars have yet to explore. This article examines several letters that Bessborough wrote to Leveson Gower to analyse how she supported her lover's fledgling parliamentary career and how she navigated their political differences. I argue that Bessborough adapted a rhetoric of affection, deference, duty, and loyalty, that was typically used by aristocratic wives, to justify her interest in her lover's career and her passion for parliamentary politics. This article contributes to scholarship that explores aristocratic women's political participation by examining the strategies a political mistress could employ to exert influence over men. It also illustrates the value of using methodologies from the history of emotions to investigate the drives and passions that shaped interactions in the late 18th‐century political sphere.

Dental care of Anne d'Alègre (1565–1619, Laval, France). Between therapeutic reason and aesthetic evidence, the place of the social and the medical in the care in modern period

Analysis of the oral cavity of human archaeological remains can provide essential information on the general health status of the person. The objectives of this paper are (i) to highlight an analysis of the oral state of the embalmed body of a 17th century female aristocrat with modern techniques of periodontal diagnosis and (ii) to provide a description of the therapeutic and aesthetic management intended to limit the functional and aesthetic consequences of the loss of teeth related to this periodontal disease. This paper provides the first demonstration of a link between a diagnosis and a therapy on an identified individual using new digital technologies used in modern dentistry. We propose that the objective of the treatment was triple: therapeutic, aesthetic and societal. Beyond the only therapeutic care and far from the only coquetry, this study shows also the importance of the appearance for aristocratic women submitted to strong social constraints (like stress or widowhood), the speech of the disfigured women being could be regarded as depraved.

Margery Kempe: A Mixed Life

Margery Kempe: A Mixed Life

Value of epitaphic literature on Tang dynasty Chan history: case studies of Chan practices by aristocratic women

ABSTRACT Over the past three decades, the use of newly published medieval Chinese epitaphs has informed our knowledge of society, culture and religion during the Tang Dynasty. There are only seven sporadic records of noble women’s Chan Practice in the Quan Tangwen 全唐文 [Compendium of Tang Prose Writings]. However, newly published epitaphs have greatly increased the number of these kinds of records available for scholars to study. In this article, the author compiles 90 records of noble women’s Chan practice from Quan Tangwen and newly (up to 2022) published epitaphic collections, studies noble women’s family backgrounds, life experiences, Chan practice and funeral arrangements, and discusses some important issues of Chan history in the Tang Dynasty, including the relationship between Chan Buddhism and women, historical facts of Shenxiu 神秀 (606[?]–706) and other chief Chan masters, and the influence of some Chan patriarchs. In addition, this article proposes the concept of Luoyang Chan 洛陽禪. The comprehensive research presented in this article will supplement, revise and enrich the scholarly understanding of Early Chan Buddhism and the history of Chan Buddhism in the eighth century.

The Artistic Characteristics of Feminism in Edith Wharton's Novels

Edith Wharton, as one of the representative writers in the American realistic literature school at the end of 19th century and the beginning of 20th century, described the life of aristocratic women with delicate psychological descriptions and precise language, and explored the fate and status of upper-class women from a unique perspective. Through the study of the artistic characteristics of feminism in Edith Wharton's novels, it is clear how Wharton reflects real life and expresses ideas by shaping characters, telling stories and describing the environment. Through "The Age of Innocence", the female consciousness is explored from many angles. Through "The Reef", this paper studies the conflict between traditional ideas and personal desires revealed by tragedy. Through "Etan Frome", the strong naturalistic is studied. Through "The Summer", "The Letters" and "The Excuses", this paper studies the narrative method of epiphany.

Military orders and powerful women in the Christian Levant

In the Christian East, religious military orders have obviously had interactions with women in leadership roles as queens, princesses and noble women. The relationship between military orders and aristocratic women varies in relation to the power these women actually had in Latin states in the East, the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia and the Latin Empire of Constantinople including Frankish Morea. As such, we must clearly distinguish between women who ran a state or governed a fiefdom by themselves and those under the guardianship of others. This difference influences the attitudes that representatives from the orders displayed towards these noble women. In this study, we are interested in these different types of situations, such as the relationship of the military orders with women in positions of power such as the Queens of Jerusalem Melisende and Sibylla, the Queen Joanna of Naples, who was also Princess of Morea, and other important women. We also examine the very delicate diplomatic intervention by the order of the Hospital concerning the Princess of Tyre, Zapel, sister of the Armenian King, Ochin I and wife to the Governor of Cyprus, Amaury of Tyre, in order to free the King of Cyprus, a prisoner in Armenia. For queens and princesses who were not independent, especially when they were young, we could determine in several cases the level of involvement of military orders in their marriage. The cases examined are representative of the wide range of types of relationships that military orders had with ladies of high social standing in the Christian East.

WOMEN IN THE HISTORY OF THE EARLY MODERN TIME – OUTSTANDING PERSONALITIES OF THE DRUGETH FAMILY

The article is devoted to today's actual problem - the analysis of the role of women of noble origin in early modern times in the socio-political and socio-economic relations of the northeastern part of the Hungarian kingdom. Although the study of gender (women's) history has recently gained momentum and become popular, this problem has been little studied in Ukrainian and Hungarian historical science and requires further research. The article presents an analysis of historical documents from the 16th to the first half of the 17th century with a special emphasis on the female characters of the Drugeth family. During the writing of the article, the author encountered various problems, including lack of basic biographical data. The problem is also the fact that the available data are incomplete and contradictory, and the family (genealogical) trees are compiled incorrectly, so the author proposes to introduce a new, refined version of the Drugeth genealogy into scientific circulation. Further archival research enables the author to slowly but surely write a more plausible history of the family. The article summarizes the study new aspects of the family history through the unknown (or yet published) moments of the life path of the Drugeth women (Anna Báthory, Erzsébet Perényi, Margit Zrínyi, Fruzsina Török, Erzsébet Rákóczi, Fruzsina Dóczy) and new give aspects of the family's history, and characteristics of their impact on socio-political, economic and religious changes in the region through the prism of Hungarian legislation. In our opinion, thanks to the research, we made an additional contribution to the study of some unknown fragments of the history of the Drugeth family. The article analyzes the concept of Transcarpathian historians regarding the decisive influence of aristocratic women on the religious practice (religious conversion) of noble families during the Reformation and then the Counter-Reformation. It has been proven that Drugeth women had a significant influence on their environment, including on the formation of socio-political and socio-economic relations. In our opinion, during the writing of the article, an additional contribution was made to the study of unknown fragments of the history of the Drugeth family.

『여자초학』과 가와이문고 소장본 『규중요람』으로 본 조선후기 양반 여성 교육

Kim Jong-su’s Yeojachohak(1797) and the Korean manuscript Gyujungyoram, housed in the Kawai Collection of Kyoto University, Japan, is a comprehensive instruction book for aristocratic women, showing the characteristics and significance of women’s education in the late Joseon Dynasty. First, this study confirmed that the source of the manuscript Yeojachohak and assumed that it was transcribed in 1843 by a person not from the Uiseong Kim family. Second, according to the manuscript, the social refinement required of aristocratic women in the late Joseon Dynasty was information about the eight provinces of Joseon, the structure of central and regional bureaucracies, the Gwageo(highest level state) examination, and the development process of faction politics. Third, genealogy education and the reinforcement of paternal order were essential to yangban women’s education in the late Joseon Dynasty. Thus, women’s education in the late Joseon Dynasty consisted of Confucian gender norms that women must perform in everyday life, knowledge acquisition as social refinement, and genealogy education for self-awareness as daughter.

Romanian Women’s Participation in Recreation and Sporting Activities at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Women’s participation in recreational and sporting activities at the turn of the twentieth century in Romania is a topic that has received only minimal attention but is important in understanding trends in Romanian society and especially the increasing prominence of women in public life at that time. In the nineteenth century, aristocratic women had engaged in various social, cultural, and leisure activities; however, in the early twentieth century, together with women from the emerging middle-class elite, they also exhibited a genuine interest in sports, mainly in the capital city, Bucharest, and in Sinaia, which afforded them extended roles in Romanian society. Gentlemen’s sports clubs promoted the sports movement and a renewal of Romanian club life, allowing women the opportunity to participate in numerous activities and even to become members of some of these exclusive societies. Women’s commitment to the evolution of sporting clubs and to sports such as cycling, horse racing, tennis, ice-skating, sledding, bobsleigh, and others signified their entrance into the field of sport – and further into public life – before World War I in a society that still imposed numerous restrictions on women.